It was like a giant community leaf-raking project in which everyone was called a groundskeeper. Some brought very fancy professional metal rakes, or even back-mounted leaf-blowing systems, and some were just kids thrashing away with the sides of their feet or stuffing handfuls in the pockets of their sweatshirts, but all the leaves they brought to the pile were appreciated. And the pile grew and everyone jumped up and down in it having a wonderful time. And it grew some more, and it became the biggest leaf pile anyone had ever seen anywhere, a world wonder. And then self-promoted leaf-pile guards appeared, doubters and deprecators who would look askance at your proffered handful and shake their heads, saying that your leaves were too crumpled or too slimy or too common, throwing them to the side. And that was too bad. The people who guarded the leaf pile this way were called “deletionists.”

This such a delightful and useful metaphor. What a great way of explaining the real joy and challenges facing Wikipedians in 2008 and in the present.

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four historic West Baltimore neighborhoods that they collectively called home: Druid Heights, Marble Hill, Bolton Hill and Reservoir Hill

How have the percieved and real boundaries and borders of these four neighborhoods changed over time? What other research could be done to understand the development of distinct neighborhood identitities and organizing efforts?

For Mike Ford, the self-described “hip-hop architect” who teaches “design justice” at Madison College in Wisconsin, the song is also a poignant rebuke of architecture—particularly the buildings used to cage low-income black and Latino families in public housing projects.

Take a minute tonight, and re-read your institution’s mission statement. Are you living up to those ideals when it comes to your workers at all levels? How can you be the change you want to see in the world in the way you hire and how you treat your workers?

What a quick and accessible approach to evaluation! You can do this yourself to evaluate your own organization or you can try this approach to form a constructive critique of a partner in your community.

When I reflect on the expense of graduate studies, I wonder about what other related issues need to be addressed at the same time. How can we design lessons, courses, programs, and departments that work well for full-time and part-time students? Students who begin graduate school immediately after undergrad and students who have been out of school for years?

How do you listen? Do you collect survey data from visitors? Is that data aggregated and shared with the public? How do you respond to survey results or other information you take in from outside your museum (or department or community group)?

How do you create a safe space? How do you keep a safe places for people who engage in in-person and online communities?

One way to pursue this goal is to use and apply community guidelines (here our guidelines at Baltimore Heritage) to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment in your classroom, historic sites, or community meeting.

Meeting people "where they are" is difficult when a university campus is literally or figuratively separate from the surrounding communities. Staff or volunteers with historic sites and museums often encounter similar challenges.

At UMBC, initiatives such as Breaking Ground try to bridge these gaps by bringing students into surrounding communities. Museums and historic sites may find useful advice in "Positioning Your Museum as a Critical Community Asset: A Practical Guide" available as an online resource and a 2016 book.

full range of technical tools a community uses to support everyday activity and public life

Students and scholars may use tools that are unfamiliar to outside partners such as Blackboard or other learning management systems. Community groups or nonprofit partners often have limited time or resources to invest in buying or learning how to use a new tool. Recognize the limits of existing tech skills & infrastructure but don't be afraid to try something new.

This engagement guide is written for readers with an interest in civic technology. But it remains relevant for many other domains. Try translating this guide by replacing the words "civic technology" with...

Course design

Educational technology

Public history

Public humanities

Or some other topic of interest to you.

Are all five modes of civic engagement still useful to you? Which approaches work for your field? Which do not?

Community-driven technologies are built at the speed of inclusion — the pace necessary not just to create a tool but to do so with in-depth communal input and stewardship — and directly respond to the needs, ideas, and wants of those they’re intended to benefit.

The structure and rhythm of the academic calendar can make it more difficult for students and scholars to work closely with community-partners.

How do you make time for students and scholars to create something for a community, listen to community input, and incorporate ideas from community members into their work? Can this take place in a single semester?

Could this be encouraged by providing students with sample presentation materials? Or creating a project style guide that students could optionally use to ensure the project is presented through a consistent voice or visual design?

This is not only important for students but also for projects that involve collaboration with community partners.

If members of a community where you are doing research or teaching are contributing photos, stories, or feedback to a project, scholars need to ensure that community members can access their own contributions into the future.

"Milking the Deficit Internship," January 6, 2016 (2016 MLA Position Papers, Digital Edition) by Spencer D. C. Keralis is another relevant reading on labor and power in the academy and the student labor economy.

not empowered to make critical decisions about the intellectual design of a project or a portion of a project

How do you empower student or outside partners to make "credit decisions about the intellectual design" when they may not share the same knowledge or approach as a scholar? In some cases, this is a difficult question to answer.

help students to formulate meaningful statements about their contributions

This is an excellent suggestion! If this support is built into the student-scholar collaboration, then it ensures all student collaborators receive credit for their contributions—not just students who seek that support from scholars.

How do you give credit to collaborators? Think about an academic book. A work might include a dedication to a beloved partner or mentor; an introduction listing student researchers; citations of influential works; an afterword on the history of the research project.

To name your collaborators, write a list:

Names for everyone who contributes to a project;

each person's role or contributions;

when those contributions took place;

and how to contact them if you have questions later.

You need to tell collaborators how credit may be presented at the outset and tell them when you fulfill that promise.